Looks like Jeffs (polygynist) needs help, and he's going to get it...

[Cerridwen]

Police release 6 men believed to be part of polygamous sect

HURRICANE, Utah - Six men incarcerated for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury in Phoenix have been released from prison.

All are believed to be members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a polygamy-practicing sect based in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City.

<snip>

FLDS leader Warren Jeffs was arrested on federal warrants Monday near Las Vegas and waived extradition to Utah, where he will face two felony charges of rape by an accomplice. Jeffs, 50, is also facing felony charges in Arizona.

<snip>

Colorado City police Officer Mica S. Barlow, postal clerk James Allred, Warren Jeffs' brother Leroy {eldest son of Rulon Jeffs, Warren Jeffs late father, and his fourth wife}, nephew Ben Jeffs Nielsen and FLDS businessmen Samuel K. Allred {Samuel K. Allred works for Aspen Management Investment and R&W Excavating, companies owned by high-ranking church official Willie Jessop, a former trustee for the United Effort Plan Trust, which holds the collective property of church members...} and Leroy B. Timpson {the son-in-law of Wendell Nielsen, a church elder said to be in Warren Jeffs' inner circle} were released Tuesday, according to the Central Arizona Detention Center in Florence.

<a little more at link>

(family connections comments added by yours truly)

Information of family connections as noted in above excerpt was garnered from AP articles posted at Childbrides.org

[Greyhound]

1. K & R

:kick:

[Greyhound]

2. C'mon people this is happening HERE! TODAY!

I can't believe that nobody cares about this. :wtf:

[Cerridwen]

3. No big deal, I guess.

Well, off to recycle stuff.

Back in a while.

[leesa]

4. Perhaps if you could explain the significance, you would get more

of a response. What's the next move?

[Greyhound]

5. How about that a state government is protecting witnesses that

have been subpoenaed by a grand jury to testify against a man charged with crimes ranging from bigamy, statutory rape, multiple counts of fraud, fleeing to escape prosecution, conspiracy, child molestation, and is suspected of numerous additional crimes including being an accessory to homicide.

If you want some details check out this thread;
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2036565

And all because they are members of a "religion".

[troubleinwinter]

7. I don't agree...

That it is "all because they are members of a "religion".

There is a long, disturbing and DIFFICULT history of this ghastly story going back many decades. Law enforcement busted the criminal abusers decades ago, and it was a complete disaster.

Law enforcement made polygamy arrests there in 1953 that in it's day, was roundly critisized by ordinary citizens (non-Mormons), as the women and children were horribly victimized by the complete loss of economic ability.

Over the years since then, the issue in Colorado City and other communities run by Warren Jeffs and his ilk had been largely ignored by law enforcement, until recently carefully and devotedly worked on by the AGs of Utah and Arizona to find a way to put this creep away, while attempting to leave the women and children as intact as possible.

We should also know that women and children are not the only victims. Young teen boys have been thrown out to fend for themselves over the last few years. These children (and women & children too) do not have any sort of normal/acceptable education.

These people have been ISOLATED from information for generations. You cannot just go "liberate" them (sorta like walking into a small country and telling them to live OUR way, and be HAPPY about it, when they had no history or inclination to do so, and were left utterly destitute.... sound somewhat familiar?) It takes a bit of understanding and delicacy, which I personally beleive the AGs of the 2 states have done.

These Jeffs people (polygamist cult leader) have not been accepted by the church for a hundred and seventeen years. It is as unfair to accuse 'Mormons' of this, as it is to accuse 'Muslims' of terrorism or 9-11.

I have nothing whatever to do with Mormonism, but am interested in history, and have followed this very disturbing story for a number of years.

I can only give my admiration to the AGs of AZ & UT for working on this complicated issue and being determined to bring this man into custody while attempting to have some care and consideration for the victims: The boys, the children and the women.

It is a very LARGE community spread over many areas. You and I probably cannot imagine spending your entire life where all businesses/home properties/schools/police/etc. are owned and run by the church. Books are not allowed. Music not allowed. TV not allowed. People grow up in complete ignorance. Many, many miles across the desert... no connection with other regular communities... entirely isolated from ordinary American culture.

1953 was a fucking disaster when officials went charging into the community arresting the (men) perpetrators, removing any and all resource the women and children had.

This issue isn't one bank-robber. It is an entire long-existing culture and must be dealt with using some smarts, sensitivity and care for those innocents who must try to carry on.

[the other one]

9. Thanks for that perspective.

I was familiar with the issue from reading Krakauer's book, but I had not considered it that way.

[Pachamama]

13. "Under the Banner of Heaven" - Great book about the LDS & FLDS by Krakauer

I read it a year ago and remember having the chilling thought about how its the fastest growing religion in the world. I look at people like Orrin Hatch in the GOP who I think are truly frightening and the power they have and then I think of the business corporations that are being run by the Mormon Church and one suddenly realizes how much power they really have.

[Greyhound]

14. And how is it, do you suppose, that these "communities" have managed

to exist for generations? This is at least the third time that this issue has made national news in my memory, and they're still there, still defrauding everybody they can, still selling their daughters, and still having sex with children.

But this has to be handled sensitively.

Outrageous. :eyes:

[Richard Steele]

6. Did they even bother with a REASON for releasing them? recommended

[Blue_Tires]

8. we will never see a real crackdown

with so many judges, politicians, and LEOs secretly sympathetic to their cause....

[roguevalley]

10. this practice, among all the other rottenness of it, makes the

women and children destitute. Who in this world can afford 40 wives and 100 kids? There are apostate grandparents living there who can't see their 100 children. The very definition of polygamy here impoverishes people in every way possible. and, what a playground for pedophiles.

[elehhhhna]

12. "Who in this world can afford 40 wives and 100 kids?" WE CAN!

They "support" themselves with our money via welfare, filing claims as single mothers. It's called Bleeding the Beast.
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/f/f39ad.html

Soon, the informal policy known as Bleeding the Beast took on a life of its own. According to the Aug. 11, 2003, edition of the Prescott Daily Courier, the policy's ominous name was a reference to a similar practice implemented by LDS founding prophet Joseph Smith and his successor Brigham Young during the height of Mormon persecution,

The practice reportedly spread quickly as it gained acceptance among the FLDS faithful, which happened to coincide with the explosive growth of state and federal assistance programs. Multiple wives, who were married in church, but not in the eyes of the law, began applying for state assistance. Food Stamps and federal programs like WIC, which provide nutritional assistance to low-income women and children, were also tapped. So were healthcare dollars through Arizona's AHCCCS program, which provides most of the medical insurance for residents in Colorado City AZ. Last year over 4,000 residents were enrolled, reportedly costing the state about $8 million a year.
...

For her part, Flora Jessop, who says she fled the group in order to escape living a forced polygamous lifestyle, says of the people in Colorado City, "They are told to go on welfare. It's called ‘bleeding the beast' and they find it amusing that Satan is supporting God's work."

[elehhhhna]

11. Face it; Jeffs-style Poligamy is a Reep Male wetdream made real

[and-justice-for-all]

15. LET THEM HAVE AS MANY WIVES AS THEY WANT......

Because if they can marry all the wives they want, then they will have to allow for Same-Sex marriage.

[VelmaD]

16. wrong

Because under this archaic version of polygyny the woman are not married to each other and men are certainly not allowed to marry each other. Supporting polygyny does not aid in achieving gay marriage rights. But supporting a system of polygamy where everyone involved of either gender has the right to marry as many people of either gender as they like...that would encompass gay marriage.